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VENUE


Off to the Bet 365 on Wednesday to play a resurgent Stohe under new manager Michael O'Neill they seem to have found the way to win away from home although have struggled at home although they did win at home against Charlton on Saturday by 3-1.

At the moment they are still under a tranfer embargo can only bring players in when they get players out, as their parachute payment will end this summer there could be major upheaval at the Bet 365.
Speaking of the Bet 365 hopefully this period of windy weather will have died out as the stadium is on top of a hill at the same altitude of Everest base camp. Plenty of warm clothing will be required as well as oxygen masks.
Last season we triumphed 2-0 a repeat of that would be nice but personal view this is a tough game.


After winning in the land of pies suspect he may retotate the squad given we are at playing 3 games in 7 days, still found the playing of Fisher at left back after substituting Hughes odd, Rafferty can feel very unlucky.

Will be there match report some time on Thursday afternoon as sadly work will have to come first.
Form rating max 25

Stoke 12 PNE 16

Match Officials: Stoke City Away

This Wednesday we have a referee taking charge of his third Preston North End game of the season, but his first away from Deepdale.
The match official for the trip to the Bet365 Stadium, as we take on Michael O’Neill’s Stoke City, is John Brooks, now in his second season on the Select Group Two list of referees.

The Leicestershire ref was in charge of North End’s 3-2 home win over Millwall in December 2018 and the 3-1 home victory over the Potters in front of the Sky Sports cameras back in August 2019, as well as the New Year’s Day clash with Middlesbrough in PR1.
His 22 games so far this season, including a Boxing Day trip to Stoke, when they defeated Sheffield Wednesday 3-2, have produced just 69 cautions and no red cards.
His last game prior to Wednesday was Charlton Athletic’s 2-1 home win over Barnsley last weekend.

He will be assisted by Sam Lewis and James Mainwaring, whilst the fourth official will be Anthony Backhouse.

Stoke City 0 Preston North End 2 Browne, Barkhuizen

Stoke City line-up: Butland, Allen ©, Batth, Ince, McClean (Vokes, 66), Chester, Smith, Martins Indi (Verlinden, 80 (Gregory, 87)), Clucas, Powell, Campbell. Subs not used: Davies, Cousins, Thompson, Collins.

PNE line-up: Rudd, Fisher, Hughes, Pearson, Bauer, Davies, Barkhuizen, Johnson, Maguire (Nugent, 57), Browne, Sinclair (Gallagher, 74). Subs not used: Hudson, Clarke, Harrop, Rafferty, Stockley.

Attendance: 20,418 (1,002 PNE fans)

Referee: Mr J Brooks

A classic example of not being at your best and winning, ground out it certainly was however credit to the defence and Rudd who kept out everythingg that the Potters threw at us. City will probably feel a little bit done too, but we took our chances City didn't.
Scrappy start to the game until Campbell fired in a good effort towards the top corner but palmed away by Rudd to Allen whose tame effort went back to the keeper.
City were having joy down both wings but gradually we got in to the game and put together a 30 pass move which got us absolutely nowhere and broke down when Fisher misplaced a pass which set City on a quick break, the ball ended at the feet of Clucas whose goal bound shot was well blocked by Davies. We gave free kicks aplenty away in dangerous areas but dealt with them all however getting towards half time Rudd seemed to be struggling and it looked like Hudson would be getting a rare outing between the post.
That didn't happen and Rudd resumed in goal after the break, City seemed to run out of ideas and it was a moot point whether we had any ideas at this point until we got a corner. Credit to Johnson who put pressure on Chester who gave away the kick



City didn't deal with the corner the ball dropped to Browne 5 yards out 1 up. Barkhuizen fired in a good effort which was well saved by Butland.
A brief interlude of aggro unsurprisingly McClean and Pearson were involved both were booked in truth both were lucky to stay on although the Stoke man was the instigator.
McClean was soon substituted and football broke out, enter Gallagher his first two touches were to take a corner and send the ball back into the area from the second phase as with the first goal City failed miserably to deal with the ball and Barkhuizen potted from about the same position that Browne had.



Apart from one save late on City didn't really trouble us due to the excellence of the defence. Three points behind Leeds who are second this is going to be an interesting finale

Stoke manager Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Stoke:

"I thought we were the better team for large portions of the game. We had the better chances from open play, not that we created a clearcut chance, but we had opportunities where our final ball could have been better.

"It's a harsh lesson for us and shows us the margin of winning and losing games."

Preston boss Alex Neil told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"Everybody wants to play well and we're no different, but that was simply one of our poorest performances in quite a while.

"But we got the job done. For us at the moment, it's about points.

"We're in that space now where we're three points off second and we just needed to get across the line."